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DanTheBassMan

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  • About Me:
    Lost soul with a long pole.
  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    1. (Fly) Fishing
    2. Producing short films on fishing
    3. Thinking about fishing
  • What I do for a living:
    Fish when I can, busy making time for fishing the other couple hours of the day.

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    MIA ca. Last Night

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  1. Since I've lost the ability to edit my original post(s), I'm just going to quote myself and make a couple edits based on more recent information that I recently clarified regarding the 2020 Saltiga spinning reel warranty policy. In summary: For Daiwa to service your US model 2020 Saltiga (which includes the 8000-H, 10000-H, 14000-XH, 18000-H, and 20000-H) in accordance with the free 5 year service policy, you must be able to present a receipt of purchase that demonstrates that you purchased the reel from a domestic (US) dealer. So only US models bought in the US can be serviced in the US and take advantage of 5 year free clean/service---not US models bought overseas or JDM models regardless of where they are purchased. I can only speculate as to the reasons behind Daiwa's decision for this, but even it it seems a bit convoluted, it still offers the vast majority of folks buying these reels in the US with the 5 year free clean/service policy. Hard to beat that. Hope I didn't mislead anybody and that the clarification helps. Dan
  2. I checked in today and confirmed that none of the JDM 2020 Saltiga models are covered by the aforementioned 5 year free-service policy. That's only offered through Daiwa's service centers in the US, none of which are authorized or likely even have core components for JDM models. I would definitely confirm this with Digitaka if possible before purchasing, but since the 14000-XH is a US model of the 2020 Saltiga, it should be covered by the 5 year service program even if bought from an overseas dealer. If you're located in the US, I would obviously advocate for supporting domestic retailers, but that's entirely your prerogative. Also, just to clarify, the following are all the US models of the 2020 Saltiga that are covered by 5 year free service program: 8000-H 10000-H 14000-XH 18000-H 20000-H And all the following are the JDM models that are not covered by that policy: 8000-P 10000-P 14000-P 18000-P
  3. To settle any remaining doubts, all 2020 Daiwa Saltiga models designated for the US market are covered by a 5 year free clean/parts replacement/full service program from the date of purchase with the only cost being the shipping to Daiwa's service center as per the screenshot posted by @jk20a3. This is a totally new policy that none of the the previous generation Saltiga spinning reels were or are currently covered by. This policy entails a reasonable though technically "unlimited" number of services per year with replacement of typical high-wear parts (bearings, gears, (mag-)seals, etc) without charge. I don't believe this covers damage due to excessive corrosion or obvious negligence/abuse, so if you back the truck over the reel, the cost of repair will likely be on you. Seems pretty reasonable to me. The Exist LT comes with the same service policy extended for the life of the reel as well as 1-day turnaround time. No other Daiwa spinning reels to my knowledge---the Certate LT or recently-announced Certate SW, Saltist, BG MQ, and probably not even the JDM 2020 Saltiga models (at least not without exorbitant shipping charges to Japan since they cannot be serviced at Daiwa's US service centers)---are covered by this free service policy. I don't have nearly the same amount of experience with Shimano's service/warranty policies, but I believe that information is readily accessible via Shimano's website. I know that many have favored Shimano's flagship reels like the Stella SW & FJ over their Daiwa counterparts in the past for lower service costs thanks to the Platinum service program, but I'm not sure of the particulars. I can certainly say, having shipped out a lot of customers' reels for service, I've yet to meet anybody disappointed with the service of their 2020 Daiwa Saltigas or '08/'13/'19/'20 Shimano Stellas. Nonetheless, I'll soon be picking up a 2020 Saltiga 20k for tuna casting. IMO, free service from Daiwa vs $30 minimum with the Platinum program as well as the many upgrades in the 2020 Saltiga with no complaints that I've heard in its first season make it no-brainer for me. Would be more than happy to answer any other questions if I can. I wish Daiwa made the 2020 Saltiga service policy more transparent online; they're not doing themselves any favors by keeping one of the best features of their new flagship SW spinning reel in the shadows.
  4. I'll cast another vote for the Kettle, but I'll toss a couple new ones into the hat, too. The poor thing didn't stand a chance. We did our very best, but it never quite sat right after the Great Recline of '19, the crack heard 'round the world.
  5. Ryan, Thanks for your reply. It might've gotten lost in my original response, but in short, I explained that a Type I or II PFD with the capabilities of marginally improving my chances in an exceedingly rare a situation I can't control (e.g., boater running me over) would worsen my chances of not getting into other bad situations in the first place and would, generally, kill the fishing experience for me. I always buckle up when I drive. I always wear a helmet when I bike. I almost never wear a PFD, even though I always used to. Too high a chance of other people screwing up on the road. The chances on the water are much lower, and I actively mitigate the risks of pretty much other bad situations happening. I don't take safety for granted, but I tend to follow Pareto when it comes to controlling safety at the expense of the experience. Also, it's probably just me, but I don't get the joke. I hate to be that guy, but perhaps you could elaborate on it? Perhaps in PMs, since I'd hate to take over this thread with something irrelevant. Dan
  6. Dear Ray and Peter, It an awesome experience to get to share yesterday's fishing with both of you. Ray, it was fantastic to see both of your clients double up after all their efforts spent casting, and thank you for your kind words. Peter, it was a privilege to observe your approach to this fishing, and thank you for the advice/reminder you gave me early on in the morning. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your anchor on the beach! I launched off the same beach, and aside from taking a few waves over the bow, it went pretty smoothly. It took me a few minutes to find and reach the spot with the least severe slope and longest period between swells, and even so, I don't want to think about doing that launch in a SUP. To all, A few words regarding the safety concerns that some have expressed. First, I appreciate your concerns, and I hope I can assure you that I have taken appropriate measures and preparations to reach the point that a lifejacket capable of aiding me in a situation in which I have completely lost control would restrict my movements enough that it would hinder my ability to do what I need to do to keep any situation from arising. There is much more than meets the eye to what I do than what short clip that Capt. Ray shared shows, and I hope that, after sharing about some of the precautions I take, there will be less doubt regarding safety. First, I have pushed my limits and practiced safety procedures in much more trying conditions than those we experienced yesterday. The first thing I did when I bought my kayak several years ago was to practice swimming, paddling, navigating waves, standing on, and re-entering my kayak in conditions ranging from flat calm to small craft advisory-worthy. Therefore, barring any injury to me that would incapacitate me partially to completely, I have no doubts that I could prevent, and in the worst case scenario, extract myself from a dangerous situation that does not involve other people. The last point is important. The greatest fears I have on the water aren't wind, waves, or current, or even seals, sharks, and whales getting a bit too close for comfort—I've experienced all of those before in the kayak, sometimes in tandem—but other boaters; negligent, intoxicated, and/or even hostile. As a measure against the first two, I always keep my head on a swivel and ears open for any engine sounds, especially in the fog like that which we had yesterday. Fortunately, most people have the sense to navigate slowly in the fog, but I recently had several experiences in the fog to remind me of the universal law that, in a room a 10 boat operators, one's bound to be an a**hole. As a defense against the last kind of boat operator, I do the same, but there really isn't much I can do in my kayak, or any paddle craft for that matter, if a person in a vessel under power intends to run me over for the purpose of doing harm or separate me from my gear in order to steal it. For that reason, I always keep my waterproof phone and a waterproof radio with an emergency SOS function on my person at all times. Being hit by a boat and being incapacitated is the only situation that I can imagine a Type I or Type II PFD would aid in saving my life, but I wouldn't be able to react to that kind of situation nearly as well if I wore one of those at all times. I wouldn't be able to paddle away toward shore, if I were close enough, and reaching around for my whistle or radio would be that much more cumbersome. Second, I, like Peter and any others of us who like to "push the limits" that others perceive, don't like to push my/our personal limits, which I/we know very well from experience (disclaimer: I don't intent to speak on behalf of Peter or anybody else, but based on his and others' writings, I gather that all of us take at least that consideration of safety fairly similarly). There are plenty of days that I know, either by looking at a forecast, tide/current chart, or the beach where I intend to launch, I wouldn't feel safe in. So I don't go. I fish from shore or make arrangements to fish from a vessel in which I would be comfortable in if I think it would be worth it to do so. If I can't feel safe at all times barring, like I said before, unforeseeable human factors, then I won't go. I just isn't worth it. While my comfort zone may push what others consider their limits and therefore make my actions appear unreasonable, that kind of projection isn't necessarily correct in many instances. Case in point: there are many respectable sports—free soloing, skydiving, freediving, among others—that seem insane to most who haven't even considered the incredible extensivity of precautions and preparation that go into them. Nonetheless, these are the same people who send their kids off to football and soccer practice multiple times per week—two of the most common sports with two of the highest concussion rates in all of sports. Go figure. Here's a clip in which I ended up in the rip at Nobska last week after hooking an albie. As you can see, I was standing up some of the time, but I felt that it was starting to approach my limits, so I sat down in my seat for most of the fight. In the clip, the seat is in the higher of two positions, about 12" above the deck. I only drop down to the lower position (7" lower) if I need to paddle long, hard, or when launching and landing. I have never experienced conditions while fishing I couldn't handle in the higher of the two positions very comfortably. With that out of the way, I hope to alleviate a couple of individuals' concerns. Alan, I wouldn't say it's crazy. All things considered, I'm not in much of a greater danger than other boaters out there, the difference being that some boaters sometimes like to run and gun on full plane with one or two guys leaning over the bow, ready to cast, without any PFDs on. Now that—that is approaching crazy in some cases. Also, getting back into a boat is a lot harder than getting back into a kayak, from my experience. Also, if you look closely, I have my blue PFD strapped to the back of the milk crate, which is reasonably accessible to me if I need to put it on as a preventative measure, although I've never needed to do this before. Ryan, I watched Peter for a bit of the time we were both out there, and I never saw him once lose his cool, even with albies flying out of the water right in front of him. He's definitely a role model to me and, hopefully, to other folks out there. Now about that "super irresponsible kid in the kayak." First, I just want to make clear that I understand why you might think that, and that I don't take any offense to that criticism. Criticisms are good and often keep me in check. I hope my explanations above have satisfactorily eased your concerns. If not, I'd be glad to answer any other questions you may have regarding what I do. I wouldn't really consider my yak "loaded" by any means. I definitely carry more equipment than Peter, for instance, but my kayak allows the capability to do so. Field & Stream Shadow Caster 123. 12'3" LOA, 36" beam. Weighs a little over 100lbs unloaded and has a capacity of 450lbs. I'm 5'7", 160 lb soaking wet, and have decent athletic abilities and acumen (former swimmer, gymnast, martial artist, etc). My gear totals to about 40 pounds, which leaves me with 250lbs of capacity to spare. The gear always includes the paddle, kayak wheels (I can land it anywhere, anytime), PFD, my anchor setup, radio, whistle, and a milk crate storage setup I built with a space for the GoPro monopod and three rods. On this day, I also had (in no particular order) a spinning rod, a fly rods, a box of flies, a box of albie lures, my stripping basket, 3 bottles of water, granola/certeal bars, sunscreen, pliers, an extra-long Baker dehooker, braid scissors, measuring tape, Fish Grip Jr, stringer, some leader material, and binoculars. Everything I carry is not only designed to get wet, but it does every single trip. I carry what I consider the essentials and not too much else. As you noted, I also generally run a GoPro (Hero 5 Black with a broken LCD display) and a Pelican case with enough batteries and SD cards to film as long as I need to. That said, the camera and batteries are starting to deteriorate from the salt after three years of service and are borderline unusable, so I may need to upgrade soon. However, you are wrong about why I film what I do, and if I'm honest, it kind of pisses me off that you decided to group me with a bunch of attention-seeking know-it-alls who spread misinformation and ruin fisheries for those who created them. I recently ended up on the water next a boat of anglers whose combined subscriber count tops 2.7 million, and guess what? With nobody else around for at least a mile and albie pods stretching for hundreds of yards to the north, they ran the exact pod I was working destroyed the peace of the morning. It sucked. But hey, they got hundreds of thousands of views doing it, so I guess that's what matters, right? Also, I'm an influencer? Try to find me online. I haven't been active on social media for years, and I've never used it to try to make money or gain a following. The vast majority of the dozens of videos on my YouTube channel are private because I only share them with friends and family. Why do I do that? Because I love sharing my experiences with people who might not necessarily have the same abilities to experience them themselves. My family gets to see a part of my life that they would never otherwise understand, and my friends who fish get a huge kick out of some of my clips. I also record for myself, and if I'm honest, there have been some days in the winter that clips by which I remember what I'm passionate about have pulled me out of psychological slumps. So, yeah—I have a GoPro, which makes just another dime a dozen influencer. I appreciate the love, brother. I attempted to create a short film several years ago after having been inspired by Peter's work years before, and I never followed through with my project. The amount of work and dedication it takes is immense—more than I had in me at the time. I still have the fire inside of me, and I may channel it into a short film one of these winters if I can find the time between college and work, but until then, I'll keep collecting clips over the courses of seasons to make sure that I can show exactly what I want to show on video when I can. For now, though, I just hope everybody here gets a kick out of these clips I shot yesterday. I have quite a few more hookups and lands on video, but these were among the best for various reasons that appeal to me visually and emotionally: Ray, I hope I didn't derail your thread—I just felt obligated to clear up some confusion regarding what I do and don't do in the kayak. With all that out of the way, thank you for the clip you posted ! It's not often I get to see the kayak from the third person point of view in the water. Also, as Peter mentioned, thank you for being a role model for other boat operators on the water. If everybody drove and drifted around other vessels the way you do, everybody would have that much of a better time on the water. Best regards and tight lines, Dan
  7. I don't feel like derailing the thread, but compared to the other manufacturers, I wouldn't say so. No disrespect to Shimano, though; they absolutely create fine products. After seeing your breakdown of the FL, I had to pick on up in time for last albie season, and I don't remotely regret it. That being said, in the rod department, if they actually put their resources towards making higher-performing rods than currently available, their rods just wouldn't be as popular. Admittedly, I don't have numbers to back this hunch, but I can only imagine that the profitability of rods designed for the guys looking for the latest and greatest will always, always be less than that of rods that cater to the broader audience of people who want rods that work well enough. As the title of the thread states, the OP is looking for the "Best all around surf rod 9'-9'6"..." Companies like Century, BH, and Zenaq, among others, cater almost exclusively to the audience that wants exactly that. They can't compete with larger manufacturers like Shimano, Daiwa, et al., which can market to, and produce, volumes of product that satisfy the demand of the larger share of consumers looking for more mainstream rods. That being said, I'm no expert and the above are my logical conclusions from premises I have observed. If you think I'm mistaken, let's make a new thread and clear it up there or do so over PMs. I'm only happy to learn more.
  8. Yep, Century's different than most manufacturers in that they design rods to push the envelope, and I would say the same for BH & Zenaq. With a few exceptions, the rest of the pack takes a while to catch up---months or even years. I think you'd really, really like the graphene Stealth, in that case. They're lighter and much deeper-loading than the Slingshots, but thanks to the incorporation of graphene particles into the carbon fiber pre-preg with which the blanks are rolled, they still have awesome recovery rates and can sling lures a long ways. I can see either the S-1 1084 or 1145 pairing up perfectly with your Ultegra. I'm not sure about Red Top, but Tomo's Tackle up in Salem carries all of the rods mentioned in this thread. Until the currently-scheduled May 18th statewide business closure is lifted, they're allowing up to 7 people into the shop at a time, including employees, and everybody must wear masks and gloves. If you have the time, I would definitely recommend a trip up there to test drive to your reel on those rods.
  9. I've handled all the above rods, and with respect to your list, I might add a couple suggestions of my own: 1. Century Graphene Slingshot SS1145, 9'6", 3/4-3 oz 2. Century Stealth S-1 1145, 9'6", 1-4 oz 3. Century Stealth S-1 1084, 9', 1-3.5 oz 4. Century Surfmachine SM9TKWSG, 9', 3/4-4 oz 5. Century Weapon 9'6", 1/2-2 oz (somewhat conservative rating) 6. Black Hole Suzuki Special 962, 9'6", 3/4-3 oz If another 6" isn't too scary, and you're looking for true refinement, the Zenaq Defi Muthos Sonio (10', 0.5-2.5 oz) and Defi Muthos Acurra 100H (1-4.25 oz) are definitely worth a peek. That said, you won't know for sure until you feel them all side by side. I may be a bit biased, but my non-graphene SS1145 has provided me with nothing but pleasure doing the things you're looking for in a rod, and the newer Centurys that incorporate graphene are a cut above the previous generation. For reference, I'm located on the North Shore, and I've a bit of experience doing that kind of fishing on the Cape. Besides the Slingshot, and to some degree, the Suzuki, all of the above rods have a more forgiving action that sounds exactly like that you're looking for. In particular, the Stealths have the most parabolic action, but they are still incredibly light, sensitive, and they cast their entire ranges very well.
  10. Much appreciated. That sure was quick!
  11. Shipping included or excluded? If that's $25 for all three, absolutely!
  12. Would you consider splitting the three High Hooks?
  13. Thanks for the kind words! Agreed with everything you said, and it sounds like your kids are going to be just fine. More than anything, it's a temporary bummer for most of the youth that I can only hope will effect a much-needed and lasting shift in support for greater preparation for this kind of situation in the future.
  14. While my teachers maintain regular communication with students and assign minor amounts of homework on a daily basis, we've had absolutely no live classes since school was cancelled. I don't really see that changing for us. In stark contrast, a friend of mine whose semester in the Bahamas was cut short now participates in 18 hours of Zoom classes per week and completes no fewer in assigned homework. I would assume that's pretty much the whole spectrum of the magnitude of different remote learning plans. One of my classes has continued on with almost no interruption, though, and that's because it's a university course that I enrolled into with an online option from the beginning. Recorded lectures are posted weekly and homework assignments are uploaded to be graded virtually. It's worked for years, and if that's what college looks like in the fall after professors and directors hash out all the details, I wouldn't be all too disappointed. The one drawback of this plan is that all exams are based on the honor system, but for students with any academic integrity and intent to actually learn something from their classes, this shouldn't be an issue at all.
  15. Class of 2020 here: looking forward to exponentially more time on the water. In all seriousness, it's the best call we could've hoped for. I can't speak for all schools, but if so much as one person were sick at my school, I have zero doubts that the rest of the school could be infected by the end of a single week given that walking between classes almost guarantees tripping face-first into the person in front of you at least once. Crowded hallways, crowded stairwells, and crowded cafeterias. Trying to maintain any kind of level of "social distancing" would interrupt the educational process as much as "remote learning" already does, except it would also carry a much, much larger chance of passing on infection. I sympathize for peers who depend on school for playing sports and maintaining social groups, but I can't begin to imagine how it is for students in less privileged districts than mine. That said, I hope this closure serves as a wake-up call to any of my peers who don't strive to maintain the best possible lifestyle under these circumstances and can't cope with their effects. There's still plenty to do to stay occupied and productive if one wishes. If anybody's interested, I'd be glad to offer my $0.02 about remote learning, AP testing, and college attendance come fall from my perspective with the full disclosure that my public high school experience is fairly atypical and YMMV. Dan
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